[trop]

Quite true. Best case, we're seeing DJ Spooky style culture jamming/remixing. But more likely it is as you write.

On the other hand, the market for stock photography was already decimated by the internet. Where previously skilled photographers would create libraries of images to exemplify various terms and sell these as stock, in the last decade or so, an art director with the aid of a search engine could rapidly produce similar results.